IP Fight Sinks to Issues of Double-Spaced Type

The patent battle between Tessera — a San Jose company that licenses lots of tech patents — and bunch of tech companies has been downright contentious. Tessera’s duking it out  at the ITC against Motorola, Qualcomm, Spansion and others. At the same time, it’s also fighting several patent re-exams at the patent office from Siliconware, another courtroom rival.

But nothing compares to the latest war that erupted during the re-examination of Tessera’s patent on “Face-up Semiconductor Chip Assemblies.” It’s over whether Tessera’s lawyers used the correct typesetting in a March 24 response to an effort to invalidate their valuable patent.

An April 17 filing by a patent office examiner claimed that Tessera’s filing —apparently handled by the firm of Lerner, David, Littenberg, Krumholz & Mentlik — did not comply with patent office rules because it was not 1 ½ or double spaced! (Come on, you learned that rule when you did your first book report in fifth grade!)

But not so quick — a two-page discussion issued April 29 on the ins and outs of style and font choice from the director of the Central Reexamination Unit found that the document in question does not fall under the stringent line spacing requirements. The document was ruled to be “remarks” rather than an “amendment,” so it needn’t adhere to the 1 1/2 or double-spaced law. Whew! (If you want to follow the drama first hand, and we know you do, go here and type in patent number 6433419) 

Since Tessera’s stock usually rockets on good legal news, Legal Pad is astonished that the company’s share price actually went down on April 29.

—  Zusha Elinson